Children in care and foster families will benefit from a new model of children’s social care being rolled out more widely across England, expanding foster care, cracking down on profiteering, and ensuring that vulnerable children locked in illegal children’s homes instead get the tailored, individual support they need.
Five new Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs) have been confirmed and four new Fostering Hubs are going live before the end of the year – a significant expansion of the new model of children’s social care which the government has been testing and trialling over the past few years. RCCs are partnerships between social workers, care providers and other key services like the police and health workers that operate across multiple local authority areas to deliver better outcomes for children in care.
Together, the seven RCCs will cover more than 100 local authorities, giving local areas real control over the care market for the first time – driving out profiteering, eliminating unregistered and poor-quality placements, and ensuring children are placed closer to home in settings that actually meet their needs.
Too many children in care are being placed in expensive, unsuitable settings far from home – and in the worst cases, locked away in illegal unregistered homes. A report from the Children’s Commissioner found that some local authorities are spending £1 million per year on individual children in some cases – an unsustainable situation.
Today the government is opening applications for the £23.1 million Home Again programme, which will give children with the most complex needs a single, coordinated plan bringing together social care, health, education and youth justice so that support is tailored, targeted, and genuinely focused on the individual child.
It builds on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act which passed earlier this year and introduced expanded support for children in the care system and care leavers.
Children and Families Minister Josh MacAlister said
Too many children in care have been let down – placed miles from home in expensive, unsuitable settings, some even locked away, while unscrupulous providers have extracted excessive profits from a system meant to protect them.
We are expanding the new model of children’s care, which means better supported foster families, real control over the children’s care sector for local authorities and personalised support for the most vulnerable children. This is what a care system that puts children first looks like.
The government is also expanding the Room Makers programme to all Hubs and RCCs, providing direct financial support for foster carers who want to renovate or expand their home to take on more children.
In addition to this, the DfE is consulting on a new, simplified set of fostering standards, replacing a patchwork of existing guidance with a single, more human document that puts enduring relationships, not bureaucracy, at the heart of every requirement.
Together, these measures are the next concrete steps towards the government’s commitment to create 10,000 new foster placements this parliament, keeping more children out of residential care and in the loving, stable homes they deserve.
Further details of today’s announcements
- Five new Regional Care Cooperatives have been confirmed in London, the North East, East Midlands, West Midlands and Cheshire and Merseyside, each receiving up to £1.7 million in grant funding. Together with the two existing pathfinders, the seven RCCs now cover more than 100 local authorities across England.
- Four new Fostering Hubs – Black Country, North London, South East London and South West London – will go live before the end of the year, bringing the national total to 14. Existing hubs are also expanding their offer so carers receive support at every stage of their journey, from first enquiry through to ongoing placement.
- Applications open today for the £23.1 million Home Again programme, making £18.5m of funding available for up to five RCCs from October 2026. The programme brings together children’s social care, health, education and justice around a single tailored plan for children with the most complex needs who are experiencing or at risk of deprivation of liberty – where a court authorises a placement that significantly restricts a child’s freedom, such as locked accommodation or constant supervision.
- The Room Makers programme is expanding to all Hubs and RCCs, providing financial support for foster carers looking to renovate or expand their home to take on more children. It will be delivered through Fostering Hubs and RCCs.
- A consultation has launched on new, simplified fostering standards, consolidating existing guidance into a single document with enduring relationships at the centre of every requirement.
- Projects for the Fostering Innovation Fund have been confirmed, funding partnerships between hubs, RCCs and voluntary and community sector organisations to test and evaluate new approaches to recruiting, diversifying and better supporting foster carers.
- North Yorkshire, Coventry, York and Dorset will become new Enduring Relationships Learning Partner Authorities, working with government to build the evidence base on ensuring every child in care grows up with the trusted, lasting relationships they need into adulthood.
- NHS England is launching expressions of interest for a new mental health pilot providing joined-up, expert services for children with social care involvement and their families, embedded within multidisciplinary social care teams.